Not One More! Feminicidio on the Border

Nina Maria Lozano's Not One More! Feminicidio on the Border engages with material feminism in order to analyze the extreme forms of gender-based violence that the Mexican anthropologist Marcela Lagarde termed feminicidio. Venturing into an ever-growing field of scholarly enquiry, Lozano draws on fifteen years of activism and research, demonstrating the power of the synergy of community-based activism and object-oriented theory. When compared to the wealth of studies on feminicidio, Lozano's book stands out for its theorization of the concept of border materialism, which allows us to focus on the role of human agency in contrasting the neoliberal structures at work in this Mexican border town. Lozano's work has a political commitment to those who have lost loved ones or their own lives.Foregrounding her scholar-activist subjectivity as a first-generation US citizen, Lozano not only has engaged in numerous research trips in the State of Chihuahua and in the border town of Ciudad Juárez, but has gone as far as reclaiming Mexican citizenry in order to overcome the national legislation that forbids non-citizens to participate in activism and political activities. As the author points out, this study is informed by the “relationships formed with the Mothers, family members, and activists in Juárez and Chihuahua” (10) and is enriched by a sizable testimonial and visual documentation that the author assembled during the fifteen years of activism, fieldwork, and archival work she conducted in the area. Methodologically, her scholarship is enriched by what Onís terms “co-presence,” i.e., the contact with community members who bear witness to the memory of the disappeared women; the result is “a layered and rich accounting of the symbolic and material spaces where the feminicidios reside” (13). In dialogue with North American, Mexican, and Argentinian theorists, Lozano engages with current scholarship on the murder of women to shed light on “the structural hegemonic forces which give rise to feminicidio” (XXV) and thus focus on the issue of the “disposability” of women within the neoliberal framework of the US-Mexico border.Divided into five chapters, a preface, “Feminicidio in Ciudad Juárez,” an introduction, “New Materialism and Border Materialism” and a conclusion, the book aims to address theoretical issues regarding material feminism and thus shed new “light on the neoliberal material properties that function to produce feminicidios” by focusing on the material and economic forces at work in this border space (2). Chapter 1, “Waves of Feminicidio,” provides a periodization of the repeated outbreaks of murders based on a historical overview of the way these crimes were exposed by activists, scholars, and theorists since the early nineties, when the disappearance and killing of young women required a critical intervention to “make sense” of the brutality of these crimes. Drawing on oral testimonies, Lozano foregrounds the role of women activists from 1993, when small grassroot organizations such as “Voces sin Eco” and “Mujeres de negro” began to expose the situation and mobilize to “eradicate violence against women” and demand government interventions (20). Studying community responses, Lozano provides a succinct yet detailed account of the techniques used by the Mexican government in a continuum of deception and cover-ups orchestrated to prevent justice from prevailing.Chapter 2, “Feminicidio and the ‘Enchanted’ Assemblages of Things,” foregrounds the importance of human agency in opposition to Jane Bennett's new materialist theorization in an exploration of the effects of neoliberal market structures that shape the living conditions of women in Ciudad Juárez. Particular attention is paid to the effects of NAFTA on the lives of maquiladora workers, showing how systemic violence intersects all aspects of their existence, from access to adequate housing, to lack of basic infrastructure, and absence of environmental protection, all elements that add to the danger of living and working in the world's women murder capital, where women's bodies are turned into disposable objects.The political aspect of memorization strategies is explored in Chapter 3, “Feminicidio, Public Memory, and ‘Thing Power,’” within a discussion of the agency of material objects in dismantling the Mexican government's official rhetoric. Chapter 4, “Feminicidio, Objects and Affect,” turns its attention to the way feminicidio victims are memorialized through artist interventions. Interspersing theoretical discussions with personal testimonies from the artists involved in the mural paintings titled “Faces of Feminicidio” (2010), the chapter includes photographs of the murals taken by Lozano herself, who throughout the long gestation of the book kept up an intense correspondence with the artivists Maclovio and Lluvia, who were involved in their design.In Chapter 5, “Lifeless or ‘Vibrant Matter’?,” Lozano, in dialogue with Bennett's theorization, takes up the question of whether lifeless objects possess vitality, whether “matter is inherently vibrant” (107), a claim that becomes particularly relevant when considering that the bodily remains of murdered girls and women are often dumped in former agricultural areas made barren by the pollution of the maquiladoras. In analyzing the violence extended to humans and to the earth, the author draws attention to “the necro-/narcopolitics of the Mexican government” (112).In line with the activist-scholar's purpose in this research, Lozano's “Conclusion” looks for tangible solutions to counteract the impunity of the extreme gender-based violence and necropolitics that affect Ciudad Juárez, starting with the need for legal changes in the State of Chihuahua where the term feminicidio is still not a legal category. The shift in legal language should go hand in hand with cultural transformations regarding gender norms. Meanwhile, local and international activism continues to be of key importance. In addition, all these measures require radical interventions that address the lethal aspects of neoliberal logics.Written in a clear style and argued in a logical manner, the book makes a valuable contribution to the scholarship in the field of feminicidio and could be included in the reading list of advanced undergraduate courses, alongside studies by Lagarde and Segato, especially in courses that plan to introduce students to community-based activism and experiential learning.

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